Challenge
Many onboard electronics in a digital pregnancy test (sensors, batteries, and a whole display) are disposed after one single use, wasting precious materials.
Approach
1. Design a product service system which adopts a sequential reuse circular model.
2. Using user-centered design to identify key insights and modify our design according to user behavior.
3. Design for disassembly and modular design to control area of contamination and enable ease of maintenance.
Solution
Mother Nature is a sustainable digital pregnancy test, designed to be reused while maintaining high standards of hygiene. Only the test strip of the product is disposed and left to biodegrade. The product is returned after usage to collection machines in pharmacy and taken to our storage area to be professionally sanitized. Here, a new test strip is inserted and packaged with the product for redistribution.
Product Design
Aside from the biodegradable test leaf, the product is designed to be returned and reused. Contamination of the reusable parts is limited using the leaf holder made of flexi-glass.
Service Design
To borrow a pregnancy tests, users pay £5 to use it and another £5 as a deposit which will be refunded upon successful return of the device.
System Design
The system describes the flow of two components, the biodegradable test leaf and the reusable device. After recovering the used devices, Mother Nature will sanitize and maintain the product.
The full report includes further details such as: package design, system design detail, life cycle assessment, stakeholder analysis
